City Agrees to GVSHP Request to Speed Up Far West Village Landmark Proposals, and to Add Three Critical Sites to Landmark Plan
Following a three-month campaign by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission announced today that they will vote TOMORROW to calendar all of the new proposed historic district designations in the area, as GVSHP has been urging them to do, and will add 139 & 143 Charles Street/689 Washington Street and 177 Christopher Street to their proposal — three previously “carved out” buildings GVSHP fought to have put back in.
Speeding up the calendaring (the first formal step in the process of considering landmark designation) of the proposed Weehawken Street district and Greenwich Village Historic District extension is critical, because the LPC’s original timetable would have taken until next Spring for most of the landmark designations for the area, leaving a long period during which these buildings would be very vulnerable to inappropriate alteration or demolition. Additionally, calendaring adds some immediate protections. Adding 139 & 143 Charles/689 Washington is also crucial because inappropriate development of these vulnerable and critically-located sites would have had a very negative impact on the area. Adding 177 Christopher Street is also important because this late-19th century building is so deeply connected to the history of Weehawken Street, AND because extending the landmark district to include a site in the middle of this block of Christopher Street ( which is largely not proposed by the City to be designated) would help ensure that a large development parcel cannot be assembled on this block (CLICK HERE for map of City’s proposed designations BEFORE these additions were made).
Special thanks go to Councilmember Christine Quinn, to our partners at the Greenwich Village Community Task Force, and to the hundreds of Villagers and preservationists who urged the Commission to speed up the timetable and expand their proposal to include these buildings. THIS REMARKABLE VICTORY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE TREMENDOUS SUPPORT AND PARTICIPATION THIS EFFORT HAS RECEIVED — THANK YOU!
Please write to LPC Chair Tierney RIGHT NOW thanking him for accelerating and expanding these proposed designations, and asking him to KEEP GOING and consider other endangered sites like Superior Ink and 389 West 12th Street.
This FANTASTIC NEWS comes on the heels of the City Planning Commission’s decision — following our huge turnout at their hearing last week on the Far West Village rezoning — to heed our call to accelerate their vote on the rezoning, which will help prevent developers “beating the clock” and building under the old zoning.
If you haven’t already, please write to City Planning Chair Burden to thank her for accelerating the vote on the Far West Village rezoning, and urging her NOT to roll back any of its provisions and to work to decrease the size of the Superior Ink and Whitehall developments.
Finally, please come to the Board of Standards and Appeals hearing on the variance proposed for Related’s 195 ft. tall development on the Superior Ink site — we need to push to reduce the size of this huge planned development. The hearing will be on WEDNESDAY, September 28th, at 10 A.M., at the Board’s hearing room on the 6th floor of 40 Rector Street (btw. West and Washington Streets — take the R, W, or 1 to Rector St., E to World Trade Center, or 4, 5 to Wall St.).
Please send a letter to the BSA RIGHT NOW urging that they reduce the size and height of Related’s proposed tower on the Superior Ink site, even if you plan to attend the hearing.
Next: 10/11/05
Previous: 09/14/05
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